Epistles of the Brethren of Purity

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity

Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ · 2010

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1. Speech grows out of sound

   To understand why people speak so many languages, begin with sound itself. First comes the sound of nature, then the sound made by tools and machines, and only then human speech. Language is treated as the highest step on a ladder of noises, not as something cut off from the rest of the audible world.

2. Pleasure and pain have two layers

   Pleasure and pain are not only bodily feelings. Each also has a spiritual kind, so a full account of what makes us suffer or rejoice has to weigh both the body and the soul.

3. Death means different things

   Death is not one event. To understand it, you have to ask separately what it means for the body and what it means for the soul.

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